Food riots

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Richmond Food Riots (1863)

Food riots (also food riots or hunger revolts ) are a form of protest against famine and insufficient food supply. Historically, they often expressed themselves as spontaneous and unorganized riots . Although they exceeded social norms, the protests were mostly very targeted.

Historical development and examples

The food riots, which have occurred again and again since the Middle Ages and which are increasingly well documented in sources in the 19th century, have long been interpreted as a marginal phenomenon or premodern forerunners of a more orderly and organized labor movement and viewed rather negatively because borders were often crossed and violence was used in the form of property damage . The New Labor History , especially the writings of the English historian Edward P. Thompson , however, confirmed a great sense of purpose in the machine storms as well as the food riots. It is not a question of senseless or uncontrolled violence, but a targeted protest against the social upheavals of modernity; Violence was limited by the moral economy of the protesters.

Food riots in the 20th century were often characterized by the participation of women, such as the mass strikes and food riots during the First World War in Germany and Austria-Hungary .

Conflicts over the price of beer are described in beer dispute . Other examples are

• Potato Revolution , 1847 Berlin
• Tübingen bread riot , 1847
• Rice Riots , 1918 Japan
• Speckputsch , 1919 Bayreuth
• Kirschenrummel , 1920 Graz
• Overather Potato War , 1923 Overath
• Bread Riots (Tunisia) , 1984

See also

• Price riot

literature

• Edward P. Thompson: The Origin of the English Working Class . From the English by Lotte Eidenbenz et al. Two volumes. Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt a. Main 1987, ISBN 3-518-02687-9
• Edward P. Thompson: Plebeian Culture and Moral Economy. Essays on English social history in the 18th and 19th centuries. Selected and introduced by Dieter Groh . Ullstein, Frankfurt / Berlin / Vienna 1980, ISBN 3-548-35046-1 .
• Veronika Helfert: Violence and gender in unorganized forms of protest in Vienna during the First World War. In: Yearbook for research on the history of the labor movement . Issue II / 2014
• Irena Selisnik / Ana Cergol Paradiz / Ziga Koncilija: Women's protests in the Slovene-speaking regions of Austria-Hungary before and during World War I , in: Work - Movement - History , Issue II / 2016.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Edward P. Thompson : plebeian culture and moral economy. Essays on English social history in the 18th and 19th centuries. Selected and introduced by Dieter Groh . Ullstein, Frankfurt / Berlin / Vienna 1980, ISBN 3-548-35046-1 .
2. ↑ Veronika Helfert: Violence and gender in unorganized forms of protest in Vienna during the First World War . In: Yearbook for research on the history of the labor movement . Issue II / 2014.
3. ↑ Irena Selisnik / Ana Cergol Paradiz / Ziga Koncilija: woman protests in the Slovene-speaking regions of Austria-Hungary before and during World War . In: Work - Movement - History , Issue II / 2016.